Tech giant Huawei Technologies has introduced its Mate 70 smartphone, aiming to strengthen its presence in the global premium smartphone market.
Research firm Canalys says Huawei is the No.2 smartphone vendor in China in the third quarter of 2024. Huawei has shipped more than 10 million smartphones for the fourth straight quarter.
Research firm Counterpoint said it expects shipments of the Huawei Mate 70 series to exceed 10 million, Reuters news report said. The Counterpoint report earlier indicated that Apple is the leader in the global premium smartphone market with more than 70 percent share.
The Mate 70 is the successor to the Mate 60 series released in August last year. Huawei earlier said the sale of Mate 60 has contributed to the growth of its total revenue.
The device is the most powerful Mate phone ever, Richard Yu, chairman of Huawei’s consumer business group, said at an event in the company’s hometown of Shenzhen that was livestreamed online and at its stores.
Huawei’s Mate 70 smartphone will compete with Apple iPhone in global markets during the upcoming holiday season. The retail price of Mate 70 will be 5,499 yuan ($758) in China. Apple’s base iPhone 16 model sells for 5,999 yuan in China.
Huawei said Mate 70 is the first mainstream smartphone to include a satellite paging system, has an improved processor, and runs on Huawei’s own HarmonyOS NEXT operating system, which together boost performance by 40 percent compared to previous models.
Mate 70 is the first major commercial rollout of the HarmonyOS NEXT, a significant step in Huawei’s push for software independence since U.S. curbs cut off its access to Google services in 2019.
Last week, Huawei said it secured more than 15,000 applications for HarmonyOS ecosystem, with plans to expand to 100,000 apps in the coming months.
Richard Yu said the Mate 70 series will offer users a choice between HarmonyOS 4.3, which maintains Android compatibility, and the new HarmonyOS NEXT 5.0.
Teardown analyses revealed both the Mate 60 and the Pura 70 series – launched in April – feature advanced chips manufactured by SMIC.
At least some versions of the Mate 70 will use Huawei’s Kirin 9100 chipset made by top Chinese contract chipmaker SMIC.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
